The Psalmist was well aware that there exists a universal law of harmony. He knew that it is a spiritual law, completely separate and apart from matter. He spoke of it as "the law of the Lord," and of its various facets he said, "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." Ps. 19:7, 10; He had experienced the harmony that is always the reward of humble obedience to the law of good.
What, then, is God's law of harmony, and the method or rule of its application? Where must we begin in order to understand and demonstrate it? Christian Science teaches that we must first learn something of God Himself in order to obey His mandate intelligently. We must see that He is not a magnified human being with mortal attitudes and motives. The Bible unfolds the nature of God as intelligent good, as Spirit, Mind, Truth, Life, Love, filling all space and including within Himself His perfect universe of spiritual ideas.
Also, Mrs. Eddy uses the word Principle to define Deity. This term gives us a sense of the invariable rightness, the perfect order, the unchanging beneficence of the divine Lawgiver.
Christian Science then reasons that a perfect creator produces only perfection. The likeness of God must be an exact expression of God's nature. Spiritual man, God's reflection, must show forth the harmony, intelligence, power, and eternality of divine Being. We read in the book of Genesis, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Gen. 1:26; And then it is said that God gave man dominion over all the earth.
A standard dictionary defines the word "harmony," in part, as "completeness and perfection resulting from diversity in unity." In the light of Christian Science this is a remarkably perceptive definition, for this Science shows that all good results from an understanding of the essential oneness of all being—a universe of distinct identities in infinite variety, living in and of the one divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy says, "The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual harmony,—heaven and eternity." Science and Health, p. 503; And farther on she continues, "Hence the eternal wonder,—that infinite space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms."
All genuine spiritual healing is based on the fact of man's present, perfect, individual existence as the reflection of God. We can apply this basic truth to specific human problems through enlightened reasoning from perfect cause to perfect effect, and this is the rule or method that demonstrates harmony. Science and Health tells us, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." p. 259;
We must understand that divine Principle is Love and that this Love is All— boundless, all-powerful, everywhere present. Man is embraced in this Love, so he is out of evil's reach. Nothing can invade the totality of God and harm His beloved child.
And why can spiritual reasoning and understanding heal physical disease? Because disease is not physical, although it seems to be. Christian Science proves that all sickness is mental inharmony superimposed on the body. It is a manifestation of human thought caused by fear of evil, ignorance of man's birthright of harmony, or else some form of sin. This Science teaches that all matter with its effects is an illusion, a mortally mental phenomenon that fluctuates according to the human belief about it.
If disease, then, is the seeming product of material thinking, its cure must be in spiritual knowing. We must invoke the law of God by correctly applying His rule even as Christ Jesus did. We must realize that man is safe and well in the tender presence of divine Love, eternally at one with the Father-Mother God, who conceives him.
We can then confidently deny that disease, with all its lying symptoms, is present anywhere. It is substanceless, mindless, lifeless, nothing but a powerless suggestion coming from nowhere and having nowhere to go. As we affirm the spiritual fact with inspiration and conviction and deny reality to the claims of evil, our consciousness will be cleansed of inharmony, and we shall see this improved mental state expressed on the body in the form of health. Filling our thought with the realization of Love's allness and silencing every least suggestion of a contrary power or presence, we shall exclude and destroy the false belief called disease.
What a joy to know that God's law of harmony and its rule of application is always with us, always infinitely potent to solve any problem which material sense may present! In precise, succinct language Mrs. Eddy summarizes the whole subject when she says, "That we exist in God, perfect, there is no doubt, for the conceptions of Life, Truth, and Love must be perfect; and with that basic truth we conquer sickness, sin, and death." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 6.
